Daisy Buchanan

Daisy Buchanan

Daisy Buchanan

Daisy Buchanan

Daisy Buchanan

Daisy Buchanan

Partially based on Fitzgerald’s wife, Zelda, Daisy is
a beautiful young woman from Louisville, Kentucky. She is Nick’s
cousin and the object of Gatsby’s love. As a young debutante in
Louisville, Daisy was extremely popular among the military officers
stationed near her home, including Jay Gatsby. Gatsby lied about
his background to Daisy, claiming to be from a wealthy family in
order to convince her that he was worthy of her. Eventually, Gatsby
won Daisy’s heart, and they made love before Gatsby left to fight
in the war. Daisy promised to wait for Gatsby, but in 1919 she
chose instead to marry Tom Buchanan, a young man from a solid, aristocratic
family who could promise her a wealthy lifestyle and who had the
support of her parents.

After 1919, Gatsby dedicated himself
to winning Daisy back, making her the single goal of all of his
dreams and the main motivation behind his acquisition of immense
wealth through criminal activity. To Gatsby, Daisy represents the
paragon of perfection—she has the aura of charm, wealth, sophistication,
grace, and aristocracy that he longed for as a child in North Dakota
and that first attracted him to her. In reality, however,
Daisy falls far short of Gatsby’s ideals. She is beautiful and charming,
but also fickle, shallow, bored, and sardonic. Nick characterizes
her as a careless person who smashes things up and then retreats
behind her money. Daisy proves her real nature when she chooses
Tom over Gatsby in Chapter 7, then allows Gatsby to take the blame
for killing Myrtle Wilson even though she herself was driving the
car. Finally, rather than attend Gatsby’s funeral, Daisy and Tom
move away, leaving no forwarding address.

Like Zelda Fitzgerald, Daisy is in love with money, ease,
and material luxury. She is capable of affection (she seems genuinely fond
of Nick and occasionally seems to love Gatsby sincerely), but not
of sustained loyalty or care. She is indifferent even to her own infant
daughter, never discussing her and treating her as an afterthought
when she is introduced in Chapter 7. In Fitzgerald’s conception
of America in the 1920s, Daisy represents
the amoral values of the aristocratic East Egg set.